This anniversary makes me reflect that October 14, 1066 was the last date England was ruled by Anglo-Saxons. After that, the rulers were ethnically Norman, French, Welsh, Scots, Dutch, and for almost 300 years now, they’ve all been Germans.
I might be wrong, were the houses of York and Lancaster ethnically more French or Anglo? Even so, the 15th century was a long time ago.
England having a long string of non-English monarchs reminds me of a much longer such stretch: In 1952, when Gamal Abdel Nasser led a military coup d’état, it was the first time since the conquest of Alexander the Great that Egypt had been ruled by Egyptians. In between they had Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mamluks, Ottomans, and Albanians.
I see lots of Irish folk condemn Cromwell, and they have their own reasons which are perfectly logical.
…but when will those same folk acknowledge, that, it was a long time ago, that todays Britons bear no responsibility and there is absolutely no reason at all for any of us to apologise for the actions of Cromwell.
It’s like, Cromwell was horrible, and you lot come from the same country.
Two armies waited to invade England. One in the north, one in the south. Each waiting for a favorable wind. Whichever one landed second would have the biggest edge.
What about the fact that the Anglo-Saxons are not native to Britain either? They came in the 5th century and took over the country from the Celtic Britains.
Well, it wasn’t too long before England got a monarch of Anglo-Saxon, and for that matter, Celtic blood, on the throne – Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, married Princess Edith of Scotland, a scion on her mother’s side of the old A-S dynasty. For that matter, Henry’s mother was a descendant of Alfred the Great.
The Yorks and Lancasters were no more “Anglo-Saxon” than their immediate predecessors. Ethnically there were a hodge-podge of nationalities as diverse as Norman, French, German, Flemish, Savoyard, Castilian, even Cuman.
Cuman?? Gracious. The Cumans were Qypchaq Turks from the steppes of southern Russia. They were driven into Hungary by the Mongol invasion. The Bad Boy of the Hungarian monarchy, Ladislas IV, known as Kun László (Laszlo the Cuman) was the son of a Hungarian father and a Cuman mother. During his reign he favored the still-pagan Cuman community. He partied with them in their tents, turning his back on the official royal court. He neglected his Christian wife Isabella of Anjou, who no doubt wondered what the hell she’d gotten into, and preferred to fuck Cuman women, sometimes even in councils of state with bishops present. In 1290 he was assassinated… by a Cuman.
Musical trivia: The Russian name for the Cumans was Polovtsii. They figured in the plot of Aleksandr Borodin’s opera Prince Igor. The wild and beautiful “Polovtsian Dances” extracted from the score became very popular and provided tunes cannibalized for the musical play Kismet. Pop songs like “Stranger in Paradise” originated as Polovtsian Dances.
So pray tell what were they doing in England? This is fascinating.
Johanna: László IV wasn’t the only child of King István V and his Cuman wife, Erzsébet. He had several sisters, who all married well. Among them were Anna, who married the Byzantine emperor Andronikos II Palailogos; Katalin, who married Stefan IV Dragutin, the king of Serbia; and Maria, who married Charles II, the king of Naples and Sicily.
Maria and Charles in turn had a daughter, Marguerite, who married her cousin Charles II, Count of Valois. Marguerite and Charles were the parents of Jeanne, who married Willem III, Count of Hainault. And Jeanne and Willem’s daughter was Philippa, who married King Edward III of England. Every king of England since Richard II has been a descendant of Philippa of Hainault, and thus of the Cuman wife of King István V of Hungary.
Thanks so much, Mississippienne, d’une Virginienne. Mon signe est la Vierge.
I just saw my first episode of Eastenders last weekend, on Maryland Public Television. So much stuff all going on at once! Like European royal marriage shenanigans.
I’m a big fan of medieval history, and know way more about the genealogies, love affairs, and scandalous goings-on of various medieval persons than probably anyone should. The English kings, by the way, have rather vanilla ethnic backgrounds compared to the exotic mixes found among the rulers of the Kievan Rus. Grand Duke Mstislav of Kiev, for example, was of Greek/Saxon/Danish descent.
